Forestview girls avenge Crest loss, positioned for another title

When Crest’s girls basketball team beat Forestview in December, it marked only the third league loss in seven seasons for the Lady Jaguars.

Richard Walker

GASTONIA – When Crest’s girls basketball team beat Forestview in December, it marked only the third league loss in seven seasons for the Lady Jaguars.

On Tuesday, Forestview avenged that defeat and put itself in position to win another Big South 3A Conference title with a 75-72 victory.

The Lady Jaguars roared to a 13-point lead, fell behind by five with 5:21 to play and trailed by one with 27 seconds left before Nikkyana McCaskill hit four free throws in the final 26.6 seconds to account for the winning margin.

“We haven’t lost much and I think the girls were very motivated,” said Forestview coach Kevin Gurganus, whose program has won 11 league titles in the school’s 14-year history. “We had the best practice we’ve had all year yesterday so I felt like we’d be ready.”

The Lady Jaguars (13-5, 6-1) needed a fast start and fast finish to take the win.

Lauren Smith scored 15 of her team-high 26 points in the first half as Forestview built a 34-23 halftime lead that grew to a game-high 13-point advantage at 36-23 with 7:42 left in the third quarter.

And the Lady Jaguars were still in control at 53-41 with 2:51 left in that period before A’Diyah Ussery, Chozie Hunt, Caleia Jones and Se’Dasia Love led a spirited Crest comeback.

The Lady Chargers still trailed 59-49 with 7:26 to play before 15 unanswered points put them in front 64-59 with 5:21 to play.

“We got down so bad early that it was really tough on us,” said Crest coach Shane Compton, whose 13-3, 7-1 team had beaten Forestview 65-62 at home on Dec. 18. “But we showed good character fighting back.”

It’s just that the Lady Jaguars had a little more left in the tank down the stretch — even as Crest still led 72-70 with 49 seconds left after Amber Mintz’s 3-pointer gave the Lady Chargers the advantage.

But Crest, which rolled up 49 second-half points, went dry on its final three possessions. Crest missed two shots and committed a turnover while Forestview’s Bre Armstrong hit one free throw and McCaskill four in the final 33.6 seconds.

“We talked about playing with a chip on our shoulder yesterday at practice,” said Gurganus, whose school will win at least a share of a seventh straight league title if it can win its final five league games. “In the past, we’ve done that more than this year. But we played with that passion tonight.”

Ussery’s game-high 34 points led Crest, which also got 14 from Jones and 11 from Hunt. Love had 10 blocked shots to lead the Lady Chargers’ defense.

For Forestview, Armstrong had 21, Kaitlyn Taylor 13 and McCaskill 11.

“We kind of ran out of gas there at the end,” Compton said. “But I feel like we’ll see them a third time. They’re well-coached, they played hard and they did what they needed to tonight.”

Boys: Crest 53, Forestview 52 — Crest trailed for all but 15 seconds of the game, but Jerick Haynes’ follow of his own miss at the buzzer gave the Chargers the victory and completed a huge comeback in the final five minutes.

Trailing 50-41 with five minutes to play, Crest scored 12 of the game’s final 14 points.

“I really thought Forestview outplayed us,” said Crest coach George Hall, whose team improved to 9-7, 5-3. “But we got a big break there at the end when we got the loose ball.”

Haynes scored seven of his team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter for the Chargers, who also got 11 points from Christian Creswell and 10 from Domonique Roseboro.